Babymetal Unleash New Single, ‘Distortion’

Babymetal is just a whole lotta fun, first and foremost. They’re one of the only successful Idol groups out there to merge speed and power metal with their kawaii J-pop sound and have it sound this fuckin’ massive and also have it become as ridiculously popular as it currently stands. This is all of the back off core singles ‘Karate‘, ‘Gimme Chocolate‘ and ‘Megitsune‘, and that major momentum isn’t slowing down with the release of the group’s latest song, ‘Distortion‘.

On a more sombre note, this is actually Babymetal’s first release since their backing musicians, the Kami Band, lost fellow talented guitarist Mikio “Little” Fujioka back in January of this year after he sadly succumbed to serious injuries sustained from an observation deck fall in late December 2017. Yet at this high international level, the show must always go on, and with tightly pounding double kick patterns, giant guitar riffs, brightly whizzing synth lines, insanely catchy choruses and some huge vocal melodies from main singer Suzuka “Su-metal” Nakamoto, ‘Distortion‘ is easily going to be another big hit for this equally loved and hated Japanese group.

While it would be such a Westerner cliche of me to compare the song’s sound and music video visuals to that of some anime’s opening credits, that really is the case here. With a ruined and post-apocalyptic world seemingly mere seconds from the end, various montage footage of CGI-made monstrous creatures, and seven unnamed yet visually defined characters showing off their skill-sets – all complete with a little group shot to round out the clip – that comparison is pretty apt. Either way, both the track and its flashy VFX video are probably pretty corny to most but I don’t really care – I back this shit!

Expect a new follow-up to Babymetal’s second LP, 2016’s actually decent ‘Metal Resistance‘, to drop sometime later this year. And yes, you definitely aren’t too cool to go and have some fun with ‘Distortion‘ below: